Mechanisms of Nausea and Interoception
Department of Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles
Nausea is a visceral sensation of malaise that can be evoked by a dizzying array of poisons, pathogens, and diseases. The sensory neuroscience of nausea remains poorly understood despite its clinical importance. Which neurons evoke nausea? What are the relevant signaling cues? What’s the relationship between nausea, satiety, and hunger? Our lab studies internal sensations with a unique focus on the neural mechanisms of nausea.
Our future work
We still know very little about nausea and interoception. For example, how do harmful toxins and pathogens stimulate the nausea neural pathways? What about morning sickness during pregnancy? What about nausea during radiation exposure, migraine headaches and many other conditions? Our goal is to understand the general principle of nausea sensing at the molecular and circuit level. Ultimately, this work may lead to novel therapeutic strategies for clinical intervention.
Our previous work
We have identified neurons in the area postrema that are important for nausea. Located outside the blood-brain barrier, these neurons express clinically relevant receptors that can directly sense circulating signals in the blood to trigger nausea. Our work provides a framework that allows us to investigate and understand nausea at the cellular and neural circuit level.
Nausea is tricky to study. Our unique approach combines mouse genetics and a small animal model (shrew) capable of vomiting to reveal the basic mechanisms as well as clinical relevance.